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AF using urine tests to detect ‘spice’ use

If you’re smoking “spice,” you should get nervous next time your number comes up for a drug test.

The Air Force is now screening urine tests for synthetic cannabinoids used in spice and other drugs that mimic the effect of marijuana. The testing, called “a new weapon in the fight against spice” by the service, began Feb. 22.

The Air Force did not disclose details about the new screening, including the percentage of samples that will be tested and the cost.

Today, the military can test for five compounds and the metabolites that the body produces after processing the compounds, according to Army Col. Timothy Lyons, the top forensic toxicology expert for the Armed Forces Medical Examiner.

Drug manufacturers, though, have potentially hundreds of synthetic cannabinoids to choose from, Lyons said.

“[Testing for spice] is a lot more involved than testing for, say, cocaine,” Lyons said. “There’s new instrumentation, new technology involved.”

Lyons’ office tests new brands of spice to keep up with the changing ingredients. Because of the large number of synthetic cannabinoids, studies on the metabolic profile of the drugs are limited.

“By not having that, it really makes detection much more difficult,” Lyons said in a telephone interview. “We do know what to look for, for the ones we can detect. It just took a while to develop the test.”

The Air Force is the only service that screens for spice, although the other services are working with laboratories to develop a test, according to Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations.

Roughead weighed in on spice testing in a Feb. 24 meeting with Military Times editors. He was not aware of the Air Force’s new screening.

“There's a great deal of effort going on to develop a test that will be able to detect spice use, which I think is something that we need to … understand more about,” Roughead said.

When asked if a test can be effective if it detects only a few substances, Roughead said he needed more details to comment on the Air Force’s program.

“Because not only is it, you know, what does it test for, but what is the time that you can capture in a test?” he said.

A PATCHWORK OF BANS

Spice is outlawed in 18 states. In the 32 states where it can still be sold legally, spice is marketed as incense or potpourri because of its dangerous side effects: disorientation, vomiting, loss of motor control, hallucinations, an out-of-body sensation, rapid heart rate and seizures.

An Air Force-wide ban on all synthetic cannabinoids went into effect in June. Last year, 177 airmen received nonjudicial punishment for using spice, and another 83 faced courts-martial. A conviction carries a prison sentence of up to two years.

Before the new policy went into effect, the Air Force had to catch an airman with spice to take action.

“With the implementation of testing, officials intend to send a very clear message: use spice, and you may lose your career, end up in jail or both,” according to an announcement of the new drug policy posted on the surgeon general’s website.

Spice and other designer drugs first caught the attention of Air Force investigators in 2003, when they were canvassing Oklahoma shops that sold drug paraphernalia. In the seven years before the service acted, various major commands, units and bases banned spice and the Mexican herb salvia.

The Air Force followed the Navy in outlawing spice and salvia; the Navy put its ban in place about a year ago. The Air Force’s ban was not based on any known spike in spice or salvia use, a spokeswoman said at the time.

Before a test was developed, the Air Force relied on airmen telling their commanders if their colleagues were using drugs.

In an interview with Air Force Times last year, the commander of the 75th Air Base Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, described the information sharing as “good airmen showing integrity.”

“The 19-, 20-year-olds, they’re getting it,” Col. Patrick Higby said. “They’re our eyes and ears when others aren’t doing the right thing.”

Higby and Chief Master Sgt. David Nordel, the 75th Air Base Wing command chief, have discussed the dangers of spice since November 2009, when Hill’s top officer signed a policy letter banning the substances. They discuss substance abuse with airmen arriving on base, at commander’s calls and at unit-level meetings.

Nordel wrote an article for the base newspaper describing spice as a ticket out of the Air Force.

“Spice has no place in or amongst our airmen,” he wrote last March. “We are working hard to eliminate its presence, and if you look around one day and someone isn’t there because they used spice, it means we are doing our job.”

BIGGEST TESTER

The Air Force already tests for the greatest number of drugs per urine specimen throughout the military, according to an article in the 2009 edition of The Military Commander and the Law, a publication of the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School designed to be a reference guide to legal issues for commanders in the field.

Staff members at the Air Force Drug Testing Laboratory at Brooks City-Base, Texas, look for the presence of cocaine, marijuana, PCP, amphetamines, methamphetamines (and derivatives) and LSD. Ten percent of the specimens are also tested for barbiturates or opiates, according to the publication.

Active-duty personnel from airman basic to senior airman, as well as second lieutenants and first lieutenants, ideally are tested annually, according to Air Force Instruction 44-120. All other Air Force personnel are tested at the rate of 65 percent a year.

Reservists will undergo testing “utilizing available Reserve Component resources and constraints on training time,” but the AFI calls for the minimum rates of random testing to be as close as possible to rates for the active-duty force.

A combination of random and other forms of inspection testing will be performed eight or more days each month (four days at geographically separated units), but daily random testing “is strongly encouraged,” according to the AFI.

The Defense Department has prescribed a combination of analytic techniques to determine whether samples are positive, according to The Military Commander and the Law, and each sample must undergo three tests before it can be considered positive.

The final confirmation test uses the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method, which is considered the “industry gold standard for drug testing.”

Officials submit to testing for a variety of reasons, according to the publication:

• For inspection testing, which determines whether a command is functioning properly and whether personnel are fit and ready for duty. A unit or part of a unit may be inspected, or commanders can use a basewide random selection process. Results can be used for criminal charges or administrative actions.

• Commanders can direct a test when a “member displays aberrant, bizarre, or unlawful behavior or where the commander suspects or has reason to believe drugs may be present, but probable cause does not exist.” The results can be used only for an honorable discharge or to support administrative actions, such as a letter of reprimand.

• A reasonable belief that presence of drugs in an airman’s urine can prompt a search on probable-cause grounds. A military magistrate or commander must authorize the search, however. Again, results can be used to pursue criminal charges or administrative actions.

• An airman can give a urinalysis test if he consents to a request. Results can be used for criminal charges or administrative actions.

• Medical personnel can test a patient’s urine for drugs as part of a routine or emergency medical treatment. These results can be used for criminal charges or administrative actions.